The Invisibility Cloak Incident
by lynned0101
Summary: Draco thinks he can impress his father and win favor with Voldemort by locating and stealing the legendary Cloak of Invisibility, but things don't work out as he hoped. WARNING - Corporeal punishment!


Lucius Malfoy sat behind the enormous antique desk in his study, idly arranging some of the exquisite (and expensive) accessories as he waited for his head researcher to arrive for their weekly meeting.  
Lucius himself was not an academic – far from it! However, as the heir to the Malfoy line and current occupant of Malfoy Manor, he possessed one of the most extensive libraries in the wizarding world, and by far the most complete collection of materials on all things connected to the Dark Arts. If he himself had no interest in anything as tedious as research, his vast fortune certainly enabled him to hire very accomplished researchers to do his bidding and draw value from the vast resources in his library.  
It was this very arrangement that had brought him to favor with the Dark Lord, as he was able to offer all manner of information to assist Lord Voldemort in his various dark pursuits over the years. Most recently, the Dark Lord had developed an absolute obsession with acquiring the Elder Wand. Lucius saw an opportunity to further ingratiate himself and enhance his standing among the Death Eaters by initiating a study and locating the elusive Wand for his Lord. The meeting today was for the purpose of receiving a preliminary report from his head researcher on this new project.

The head researcher, a waspish man with thick glasses, was a curious individual. He was a near-squib from a very old wizarding family, but his lack of magical strength was completely offset by the strength and scope of his intelligence. He adored books, and the Malfoy libraries were his vision of heaven. As long as the books themselves were well cared for, he had no particular scruples about the topics on which he was directed to focus or the use to which his research was eventually put. The act of doing the research, finding the clues and assembling the story, was his greatest pleasure. It was odd that such a brilliant detective remained unaware of the rather obvious agenda of his employer, which was clear from the theme of most of the research projects, but the selective obliviations of his memories by his employer no doubt disrupted his ability to see the bigger picture. He was well paid and very content with his position, and very dedicated to keeping Lucius pleased with his work.

When the head researcher was first given his assignment to find as much background information as possible on the Elder Wand with a view to identifying its current whereabouts, he immediately  
recognized the Elder Wand as one of the three Deathly Hallows. More for his own amusement, he decided to include the Resurrection Stone and Cloak of Invisibility in his preliminary research. He did not show such initiative often, and wondered if Lucius would object, but felt the slightly broadened scope of his preliminary research would not slow down his pursuit of information on the Elder Wand, so he took a chance.

To the head researcher's immense relief, his employer seemed intrigued with his additional work at their meeting. He reported on references he found that were very likely to the Elder Wand as recently as 100 years ago; he felt that with some validation and cross-checking, he should be able to offer some detail on its likely current location in a few weeks. References to the Resurrection Stone itself or references that might be alluding to the Stone by some other name, were few and far between, and there was nothing at all more recent than about 400 years ago. There were, however, some tantalizing clues in the records as recently as 50 years ago that might be to the Cloak of Invisibility.

Lucius was pleased with the concrete progress made toward locating the Elder Wand. He was at first surprised by his researcher's initiative in pursuing information on the other Deathly Hallows, but it took only seconds for his cunning and ambitious mind to discern the potential for his own gain and glory if he could gather either or both of them. He listened attentively to the report on the findings, and was suddenly struck by memories of his own that might bear some checking.

After Lucius graduated from Hogwarts and assumed his place as the scion of the Malfoy line and thus a leader of the wizarding world, he had remained in contact with a socially-awkward young Slytherin,  
who clearly had skills and abilities that would make him a good Death Eater when his time at Hogwarts was up. Lucius cultivated him as a recruit, and was thus aware of the travails his semi-protégé endured at the hands of some malicious Gryffindors in his year. He had encouraged young Severus Snape to share the otherwise annoying stories because he suspected they might contain information that would some day enable him to lure the young man to the Dark Lord's service. Several of the stories from Severus' school years certainly suggested that someone was able to move about Hogwarts Castle undetected by others. Could it be the use of an invisibility cloak, maybe even the famous Cloak of Invisibility? The boys who terrorized Severus were the sons of some of the oldest wizarding families, so anything as possible. Lucius had never heard anything from even the most boastful of the Blacks that might suggest the Black family possessed such a treasure, so they were not likely candidates. The Potters were certainly a very ancient family. Who knew what heirlooms they had? The current Pettigrews and Lupins were certainly not in the same category as the Blacks or Potters, but sometimes very illustrious families of old lost their fortunes, or the line continued through a female child so the name was lost, but even when the name and status were gone, that did necessarily mean that all of the family treasures were gone as well.

It was not like Lucius to share such information with an employee, but he reasoned that he would be able to obliviate any memory of this discussion once the research was done, so he explained this to  
the head researcher, whose eyes glistened as he made careful notes of some very interesting new areas of research.

Lucius' son Draco was home from school for a few days, and entered his father's study moments after the head researcher left, clearly in a hurry to get started with some new project. Draco was curious  
about the meeting, and was annoyed that his father was so tight-lipped about what he had asked his employee to do. Draco did not like feeling excluded, but he also did not like to allow anyone to suspect that he felt that way, so he quickly changed the subject in his conversation with his father. He would find his own way to gather some information about the researcher's project, and not allow his father to know it concerned him at all.

Draco always spent a good deal of time in the Malfoy library when he was at home, whether doing school work, his own research, or just idly browsing among the many volumes. He made a point of doing that for the remainder of his holiday, and was rather surprised to see the head researcher working in the main library, and not in the very private area where the materials on Dark Magic were kept. He'd been sure, given Lucius's reticence, that the project was Dark, but apparently not. Draco would have had some explaining to do if he was loitering amid the Dark materials, but his presence was of no notice amid the general books. He patiently waited and watched, and was finally rewarded when the researcher left his notes on one of the long tables while he stepped away for a few minutes, and Draco  
was able to wander by and read the notes.

Draco had actually spent some time of his own looking into the Elder Wand question over the years. Since the Wand had gathered quite a few names over the years, and was often not referred to by name at all, it was never very clear to him if stories or references attested to the presence of a remarkable wand, or a very powerful wizard. Eventually, Draco dropped the subject because it had proven too time consuming to analyze so much disjointed data. He'd never thought seriously about the other Deathly Hallows, although clearly if he accepted that one was a real relic, it was possible that the others were real as well. So – Severus Snape, of all people, had shared information with his father that might provide a clue leading to the location of the Cloak of Invisibility. And his father suspected that the Cloak had been at Hogwarts within the past 20 years. Fascinating!

Draco mulled over how he might use this information himself. He would be seeing Snape once he returned to Hogwarts, and might be able to get some further information from him directly. He saw  
Snape, his Head of House, as a mentor, and felt that Snape favored him among all of his fellow Slytherins because of his family connections and personal interest and skill in subjects Snape loved. However, Snape's favor was not a very reliable commodity. After working through a number of scenarios and approaches, he finally decided that his mentor was most likely to respond to a very  
direct approach.

Shortly after his return to school, Draco sought a private meeting with Snape, who was happy to accommodate him. Draco shared news of Lucius' new project, investigating the whereabouts of the Deathly Hallows, in particular the Elder Wand. Snape had never imagined that the items described in that children's tale were real, and was rather taken aback that someone as worldly as Lucius would take such nonsense seriously. However, he had to admit that Lucius, while lazy and arrogant, did have a certain way of looking at things and his suspicions were not to be dismissed, especially if he was taking  
them to the point of assigning a project like this to his well-regarded head researcher. The political value of such research, especially if it was fruitful and led to the Elder Wand, was obvious.

Snape's eyebrows went up dramatically at the news that this project included research into the Cloak of Invisibility based on some of the stories he had shared with Lucius years ago. Draco was clearly  
interested in pursuing a detailed discussion of these stories. Snape had no intention of sharing details of the torment he endured at the hands of Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Lupin – he was angry to learn that there had even been mention of this in the notes Draco saw. However, that was tangential to the issue of an invisibility cloak, which did intrigue Snape. He scoured his memories to identify those that suggested such a cloak might have been used, and edited the facts he shared. Draco absorbed every detail Snape provided, and asked questions to round out the information as much as possible. With a start, Draco realized that he had a story of his own that fit the general pattern of the ones Snape had shared. His eyes glistening, he told Snape his own story (equally edited to omit any parts that portrayed Draco in a less-than-favorable light) – of an encounter he and two of his friends had near the Shrieking Shack outside of Hogsmeade in third year. He and his friends encountered Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger there, and began to taunt them. After that, all he could remember were snowballs coming from no where, hats being pulled over faces, trousers being pulled down to ankles, and himself being dragged into the fenced-off area surrounding the Shack (although he did not mention that last). In  
retrospect, it was clear that there was probably someone there that they just could not see, someone who was protecting Weasley and Granger, and happy to harass the three Slytherins.

After Draco finished sharing his story, he and Snape looked at each other, with knowledge dawning. They said as one "Potter"!

Snape shrugged at this. It was arguably interesting, but of no actionable use to him. He had more important things to do than try to validate the truth behind a fable. He also did not believe that Potter's possession of an invisibility cloak bore any relation to the story about the Deathly Hallows. Invisibility cloaks were rare but not unheard of. The Potters had money. Either father or son (or someone many years before them) could afford to buy a high-quality cloak if he wanted one. That did not mean there was anything to the legend of the Cloak of Invisibility.

Draco was torn. His father had not taken him into his confidence and he had to sneak to develop more information on a topic about which he was not supposed to know. He wanted to ponder this, but had to be careful and consider all the angles. For different reasons then, the two moved their conversation to a different topic.

While Draco dropped the topic from his conversation, it remained front and center in his mind. He was convinced that Potter had the Cloak of Invisibility! What could he do about this? Wouldn't it be wonderful, wouldn't Lucius' estimation of and pride in him rise exponentially, if he actually took possession of the Cloak? With visions of the acclaim and honor that would be his, Draco planned to  
do something with this knowledge, as soon as he figured out what that might be.

He needed more information. Draco used his finely-developed snooping and eavesdropping skills over the next few weeks to listen in on the conversations among Potter, Weasley and Granger, when they  
were not aware that they were being overheard. Largely, this confirmed Draco's suspicions that the three were idiots. He heard no mention of anything that could possibly be to a cloak at all. The only thing he learned that was that Potter kept all his worldly possessions, of which he apparently had very few, in his trunk in his dorm room. There had been enough mentions of the trunk over those weeks. He became convinced that Potter had the Cloak in his trunk in the Gryffindor Tower, and the focus of Draco's thoughts after that was on how to get into the Tower to find the Cloak.

He quickly ruled out a direct approach. While a professor would know the entry point and the password to all of the Houses, Draco knew better than to ask Snape for help with this. He needed to find some other way. How to get into a room in the Tower, behind a disguised entry protected with a password? Obviously, not through the disguised entry, at least not as Draco Malfoy. Could he sneak in some way, or disguise himself as a Gryffindor and fall in with a group entering their common room? Good idea, but Draco could not imagine himself pulling that off. He could not possibly fake acting like a Gryffindor even for a very short while, and he was sure he'd be found out immediately. Floo? Draco was pretty sure that none of the fireplaces in the common rooms were connected to the general floo network; he'd only heard of floo travel into and out of the Headmaster's Office. Plus, floo travel was traceable, and he imagined the wards would at least alert the Headmaster, if not all the Heads of Houses, to any floo use in Hogwarts.

The solution came to him as he walked back from the Quidditch pitch after a practice. He looked up to the sky and saw Potter's distinctive owl circling lazily and finally drawing close to the Tower, finally disappearing into an open window. He noted that the window in question was the topmost window in the Tower, slightly to the side facing the pitch. He had a broom. He could fly up there and enter through the window, just like the owl.

Now, how to do this without detection? That window could be seen from the Quidditch pitch, and it would be too risky to expect that no one watching a game would notice a student flying around the  
Tower. He needed to do this when others were not likely to be out and about the grounds, ideally not in broad daylight, and when no one was likely to be in Potter's dorm.

Once again, Draco embarked on a program of stealthily watching his Gryffindor classmates, this time to discern their habitual whereabouts in the Castle. It had to be a time when Potter and his dorm-mates could be trusted to not be in their dorm, and that Draco himself was not expected to be somewhere. They tended to all go to meals at the same time, and dinnertime would have been perfect, but Snape expected all Slytherins to be at the evening meal and he would notice Draco's absence. Draco even assembled all the class schedules, and looked for times when all the Gryffindors were in class but the Slytherins were not. There were a few such times each week, but all during daytime. He'd need to keep working on this. In the meantime, he surreptitiously snuck a school broom out of the broom shed and hid it in some bushes near the Castle entrance. He knew he'd figure this out and need to be ready to act when he did.

A spot of bad weather solved the problem. The weather was chilly, clouds hung low in the sky, and a heavy mist blanketed the Castle. It was not nighttime, but people were not likely to be out on the  
grounds or even looking out the windows. Further, this was a day on which one of those golden hours for Draco's plan occurred – all the Gryffindors had Transfiguration, and the Slytherins had a free  
period in the late afternoon. One Slytherin quietly slipped away from his mates as they made their way to their common room for the hour, vaguely suggesting something about the library. Instead, he  
actually slipped out the door and behind the bush where he'd stowed the broom.

Draco took off his cloak, trading his warmth for a smaller and less noticeable profile in the air, mounted his broom, and kicked off. He stayed close to the Castle but away from the windows until he got  
near to the Tower, and he ascended to the window into which he'd seen Potter's owl enter. It was not locked, and he gently pulled it open and hovered as he leveraged himself onto the windowsill. He  
pulled the broom in after, and quietly turned to verify where he was.

The good news: he was clearly in the Gryffindor dorm occupied by Potter and his cronies. The bad news: he knew this because Neville Longbottom was in one of the beds, snoring softly, but even in the  
half-light, Draco could see that his skin was bright green – no doubt something he'd acquired in Herbology. He silently cursed himself for not taking more regular attendance of the Gryffindor boys at meals, because he should have realized someone was sick.

Nothing he could do about that now. Very quietly, Draco headed toward the trunk with the "HP" initials by its handle. He experienced momentary panic, wondering if Potter would have locked and warded his trunk against intrusions. He nearly sighed aloud when he discovered that the Gryffindors apparently trusted each other enough to dispense with that sort of thing in their own dormitory. He carefully opened the trunk, and with one eye on the sleeping Longbottom, started to rummage among the junk strewn within it. He finally felt fabric, something silky and soft at the bottom of the trunk, and closed his hand around it to begin the process of extracting it quietly. He nearly had the fabric free from the trunk when he accidentally knocked a heavy item out of the trunk, and it landed loudly on the floor. He froze, watching Longbottom stir. The boy was rousing from his sleep. Draco quickly considered his  
options. He did not want to leave without his prize, but he also did not want to consider the consequences of being found in this exceedingly compromising position. The best defense here seemed to be to go on the offense; he pointed his wand at Longbottom and hastily muttered "slumberesse," a spell that he thought would cause the boy to go back to sleep. He'd never actually used that spell before  
(he'd overheard Snape use it in the dorms), but Longbottom went limp immediately, so Draco considered it a success. He wasn't going to tempt his fate by remaining in the Tower any longer. He carefully put everything back where he'd found it. Inspecting his prize, Draco concluded that even if it was not the true Cloak of Invisibility, it was obviously a very fine invisibility cloak in its own right. He tucked it into his shirt for safekeeping, and retreated to the windowsill. Again taking care to leave no evidence of his visit, he angled the broomstick out of the window, and once he was seated upon it, carefully closed the window behind him and flew away.

Draco was gone mere minutes before Potter and Weasley returned to their dorm after their Transfiguration class. They were surprised to find Longbottom still so sound asleep, but he probably needed to sleep off some of the potions that had been prescribed for him by Madam Pomfrey for his wartcap fungus infection. They quietly went about their business and slipped out of the room to be sure they did not disturb their friend.

As Draco flew back to the bush where he had left his cloak, his flight caught the attention of Snape from the staff room window. Snape generally tried to avoid the staff room at all costs, as he found anything that went on in there tedious beyond comprehension. Dumbledore convened a meeting, hence his presence there that day and his sudden interest in looking out windows. He followed the flight and recognized the white hair of Draco Malfoy, although why he would be flying on such a nasty day, flying without a cloak or any protection from the weather, was most curious. He also tried to puzzle out the direction from which Draco had come – it seemed like he was coming from the castle itself. Draco then landed and stowed the broom and retrieved his cloak. Something was definitely going on here, and Snape was going to find out what. He remained until the interminable meeting ended, but after spotting Draco, his mind was focused only on how he might find out what the boy was up to.

Generally, in Snape's experience, his Slytherins liked to boast. If someone had done something daring or remarkable or particularly sneaky, it would be bragged about. He swept to the dungeon as soon as the meeting ended to set up listening charms around the common room, to enable him to capture that afternoon's pre-dinner conversations. After a further minute's thought, he went down to Draco's dormitory room, and placed a few listening charms there, as well.

Now to wait and see.

Snape waited in his study while the students returned to dormitories after their classes to await dinner time. Most of the overheard conversations were the usual rather vapid discussions about classes and who was snogging who this week. The last minute addition of listening charms to the boy's dorm paid off, though. Snape heard Draco brag to his two goons that he'd "got it." They were suitably impressed and complimented Draco on his good flying but said nothing that shed any light on what "it" was. Unauthorized flying around the school was certainly a transgression worthy of punishment (or even the loss of House points, if he caught someone other than one of his Slytherins doing it), but would hardly explain the enthusiasm with which the boys were going on about this. There had to be more to it, so Snape listened even more carefully.

Further comments allowed Snape to conclude that the other boys regarded what Draco had done as a "prank" and his ears pricked up even further with comments that indicated that Draco had taken something while out on his broom. There was a soft rustle and flapping sound, as if fabric was being moved about, and then there was much "oohing" and "aahing" and other evidence of admiration. A  
final and most disconcerting piece of evidence as so bizarre and out of place that Snape almost missed it. He was sure he'd heard Draco say the name "Longbottom."

Snape ruminated on these various tidbits over dinner, and then over a drink by his fireplace after dinner. Draco had flown somewhere and taken something, and was getting lauded for it. He showed his two  
friend something, and it sounded like fabric. A banner or flag? How on earth did Longbottom fit in anywhere? If it was a school banner, Snape figured he would hear about it the next day when it was discovered to be missing. He was prepared to dismiss the episode as a childish prank when a knock on his door broke his train of thought. It was Madam Pomfrey, who looked quite harassed as she waited for him to respond. This was odd – she usually just dispatched an owl with any requests she had for potions for her stores in the infirmary.

When he opened the door, she immediately burst out with "Severus, I need your help. Mr. Longbottom has been suffering from a bad case of wartcap fungus –he'd jostled an infected wartcap and it released  
a cloud of spores in his face, and I've been dosing him with the appropriate fungicidal potion. He's now unconscious and unresponsive. Would you please accompany me to the infirmary to assist me in verifying if he's reacting badly to an ingredient in the potion?" Snape had made a number of potions that he knew were taken by the Longbottom boy and there had never been any indication of any allergy or sensitivity, which you would never expect in a pureblood, anyway. He swept along with the highly agitated mediwitch to inspect her patient.

Longbottom had wartcap fungus, alright. He was clearly starting to recover, as now only his nose and one ear remained bright green. To Snape's trained eye, this did not look like a potions problem. However, to buy time to think this through, he proceed to go over the various ingredients in the fungicidal potion with Pomfrey, and one by one, she ran scans for sensitivity, and found none. Snape  
asked to see Longbottom's medical file, ostensibly to see if there might be a lingering effect from something he took previously, but primarily to give himself a few minutes alone with the boy. When  
Pomfrey went for the file, he pointed his wand at Longbottom and scanned for spells or curses, and was not surprised to find that Longbottom was in his current condition because of a poorly-administered slumberspell. Snape had devised this spell himself, and had never taught it to anyone. He used it for the youngsters in his House who had poor sleeping habits or who were homesick, to get them to stop whining and go to sleep. It put the student into a deep sleep that generally lasted an hour or two, by which time natural sleep rhythms took over. Longbottom had been hit with this spell, but it was not targeted as it should have been to the portion of the brain that controlled sleep. It essentially knocked the boy out cold. There was no damage done, and as the impact of the spell faded over time, Longbottom would awaken in a few hours, or by morning at the latest, even without his intervention. How on earth could Longbottom have been hit with this? Only a Slytherin could have cast the spell. It was never used outside of the lower-year Slytherin dorms, and only by Snape himself.

Wait a minute. Draco mentioned Longbottom – he'd wager a gallon of Basilisk venom that Draco had cast this spell. Was it possible that Draco had flown to the Gryffindor Tower this afternoon, to take  
something, and encountered Longbottom? Why would Draco do that – what on earth was in that dorm room that Draco could not go out and purchase himself, in probably better quality or condition? When the answer hit Snape, it was almost as if he'd been hit by a bludger. Of course – Potter's cloak! Assuming that there was a cloak, it was almost assuredly just a Potter heirloom and not the fabled Cloak of Invisibility, but still, a good quality invisibility cloak was extremely expensive, and its loss would be noted. Draco STOLE Potter's cloak?!? He'd risk expulsion from Hogwarts and who knows  
what punishment from his image-conscious father for a CLOAK? Snape himself began to feel ill about this.

He decided he would end the mystery of Mr. Longbottom's illness as soon as he'd spent a few minutes perusing the file, once Madam Pomfrey brought it to him. After making a show of flipping through  
pages and running some scans of his own, he slipped in the spell to counter the slumberspell. He advised Madam Pomfrey that nothing given to Longbottom could have caused this problem, although if  
Longbottom had been permitted to self-administer potion doses (as most students beyond the second year were), and he did not follow dosing instructions, it is likely that he upset his system and created this unusual and probably one-time sensitivity. As if on cue, as Snape finished, Longbottom woke up. He was a bit befuddled by his presence in the Infirmary, but both he and Pomfrey accepted that he had fallen into an extremely deep sleep because of a sensitivity to potions ingredients. This was duly recorded in his record, as was Snape's comment about this being unlikely to recur. Snape asked if Longbottom had any recollection of the circumstances of his falling asleep. He did not – he'd fallen asleep in the middle of the afternoon and then woke up here. Good news for Draco – Snape still had a shot at undoing whatever mess he had gotten himself into, with no one but Snape to answer to.

Snape returned to his chambers with a scowl on his face. He liked Draco, and he found most of the boy's schemes clever, but he'd gone way too far this time.

The next morning, Snape took a very early breakfast and returned equally early to his chambers, so he was able to slip into the dorm as soon as the students headed off for their breakfast. Not surprisingly, Draco's trunk was well-locked and heavily warded. No problem – Snape had years of experience dealing with children trying to conceal things from him, and he was able to gain entry quickly. Sure enough, hidden way at the bottom was a small bundle, which felt like the finest silk and was even a bit difficult to see when he held it in his hand. He gathered it up and resealed Draco's trunk.

Snape and Draco both had a free period in the middle of the morning, so he dispatched an owl to deliver a note to Draco at breakfast to meet him in his office at that time.

Draco was not concerned in the least with the note to see Snape. They had a good relationship and he actually enjoyed time with his Professor. It was thus a very un-concerned young man who entered the dungeon office a couple of hours later, only to find Snape in a barely-controlled rage. Puzzled, Draco could not understand this, until Snape unfolded the cloak that he'd taken from Potter's trunk the afternoon before. Uh-oh.

Snape could tell by the look on Draco's face that he'd read this situation correctly. "This cloak belongs to one Harry Potter, if I am not mistaken, Mr. Malfoy, which raises the question of how it came to be in your trunk this morning." It was never a good sign when Snape called him "Mr. Malfoy." Draco thought quickly of concocting a story, but the look on Snape's face suggested that he'd see through it in a heartbeat and be even angrier with him, if that was possible. "I assume that you flew to the tower yesterday afternoon, admitted yourself through the window, collected the cloak from his trunk, and just in case Mr. Longbottom might awaken at an inopportune time, administered a rather ham-handed slumberspell so you could avoid detection."

Dejectedly staring at his shoes, Draco swallowed loudly and nodded. His only consolation at this point was confidence, sort of, that Snape would not turn him over to the Headmaster, as he probably should have. It appeared that they would resolve this between themselves. At least Draco would not be expelled or disowned. Snape did seem to appreciate the value of the good will of the Malfoy family, given the standing of the family within the wizarding world in general, and particularly his father's standing with the Dark Lord. He hoped.

"Yes, Draco, we will resolve this matter now. Your tenure at Hogwarts will not be ending today, although you may come to wish that were so. I have a trusted house elf who should be able to return this to Mr. Potter's trunk undetected. I assume that the only evidence you left of your visit was the spell administered to Mr. Longbottom?" Draco nodded. "Good. Would you care to explain why you did this?" Truthfully, Draco did not, but he knew when Snape's question was an order, and this was one of those times. "This is the Cloak of Invisibility, and I was going to give it to my father. He is looking for it – I told you he has his head researcher working on this. Imagine how proud he would be of me if I secured it for him. Please, Professor. Can't we let me keep the cloak and give it to my father? We can share credit for the discovery – "

"How foolish you are, Mr. Malfoy. Invisibility cloaks are rare, but not unheard of. They are made of fabric, so even if there ever was a real Cloak of Invisibility, the events in the fable occurred many  
centuries ago. Do you really think a piece of fabric would last that long? I'm sure such old fabric would be dust by now. You can buy invisibility cloaks, you know that. They are exceedingly expensive. This is pure theft, of a very valuable item, from one of your classmates. If this were to be known by anyone else, you would be expelled and your wand might even be broken. I will not even speculate on your father's reaction."

While Draco stood in abject despair, Snape summoned his house elf. "A prank has gotten out of hand, Musker, and we need to undo it quietly to avoid unnecessary and unpleasant consequences. You must speak to no one of this, do you understand?" The little creature nodded earnestly. "This item must be placed in the bottom of Harry Potter's trunk in the Gryffindor Tower. No one may see you do this. Can you assist me?" "Of course, Professor Snape, it will be my honor to be of assistance." Musker took the offered cloak, disappeared, and was back not more than a minute later to report "It is done."

Draco could not feel any relief that his deed was undone; he remained convinced that the Cloak of Invisibility had just slipped through his fingers. He had not looked at Snape's face. If he had, he'd have understood that he had more to be worried about than just the return of the cloak to its rightful owner.

Snape curtly thanked Musker and dismissed him, turning then to Draco.

"Mr. Malfoy, in my years as a Head of House, I have never had to deal with a matter as beneath the name of Slytherin as this. Theft! How disgraceful! You should be ashamed of yourself. You are dodging school punishment by my intercession, and avoiding whatever your father would do. And assault on a fellow student! When I use slumberspell, I use it correctly and it causes no harm. In misusing it, you caused Mr. Longbottom to end up in the Infirmary. Events could have easily unfolded in a way that resulted in detection of what you did, although you were lucky that I was able to intercede there as well and correct the mess you made. You are not getting out of my punishment, you know that. You will  
appear in this office after dinner this evening for your punishment. You are dismissed until then."

Draco proceeded to have an awful day. His friends knew something was wrong, but were kept at bay by the glares and short answers they got from Draco, and eventually understood that they had best keep  
their distance. Classes were hardly a distraction from Draco's worry about what was to come, and he was sure he could have done better that day in a few of them if he were not so upset. He hardly touched his lunch or dinner. When dinner ended, it was with a sense of foreboding that Draco slowly walked to Snape's office.

His feeling of doom seemed to be on target. Snape looked no less murderous now than he had hours before. Draco usually slipped into one of the chairs across from Snape's desk, but felt that might not  
be a good idea. Instead, he stood quietly just inside the door, staring at the well-worn carpet, and wishing with all his might that he was anywhere but here.

Snape looked Draco over, as he stood in obviously great discomfort by the door. He was aware that it had been a very "off" day for the boy, as a couple of his colleagues reported that his work was very  
sub-par today. It had been part of Snape's punishment that Draco would have all day to think about what was ahead, and that part of the plan had gone as intended, then.

Pranks were one thing, but Snape could not really accept that anyone would agree that Draco's actions fell into that fairly benign category. Draco had to realize that stealing could actually land someone in Azkaban prison. And misusing spells that he clearly did not understand could do extraordinary harm to others, even kill them.

Snape himself had calmed down, although he maintained his stormy demeanor to keep Draco off kilter. He knew what he was going to do, and had steeled himself to proceed.

He stood looming over the cowering boy to have a final discussion about Draco's actions. "Mr. Malfoy, I remain appalled that we must be having this meeting. You need to understand that I will not tolerate one of my Slytherins engaging in common thievery. Frankly, this does not even qualify as "common" thievery – a theft of this magnitude, of something of very high value, would normally even get the attention of the Aurors! People go to prison for doing things like this, and they lose their wands. I am probably not the best one to comment on the impact a conviction of such a crime would have on one's social standing, but I am sure you know that better than I do anyway. I have spent the best part of this day trying to find a way to view what you did as a school prank, but I cannot convince myself in any way that this could be regarded so leniently. It was a serious, premeditated act of criminality. And then you compounded all of that by placing a spell on another student that you did not understand and that harmed that student, to the point that he was brought unconscious to the infirmary. How lucky you were that Madam Pomfrey sought me out, thinking that Mr. Longbottom was having a reaction to a potion."

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Really, Draco did not have anything to say. He felt just awful. He knew that Snape would only be infuriated by any effort to talk his way out of whatever punishment was coming, and would only increase the punishment in response. He wanted to say something, though. "I've already told you that my motives did not include any intention to harm anyone, and I had not regarded my actions as theft, but of taking a relic for the Dark Lord. I have offered you the chance to share in the honor of having recovered this relic, and remain very disappointed that you did not agree to that path."

Snape only shook his head at that. Did Draco really think he could threaten Snape over something like this? He directed Draco to remove his cloak, drop his trousers and pants and bend over the desk. Draco's eyes widened at this instruction. He had overheard talk among some of the upper year students that Snape's punishment for serious transgressions involved corporeal punishment, but it had never entered his mind that he would find himself subjected to anything as - - demeaning - - as this. He was a Malfoy! How dare Snape presume to strike him at all, let alone in this totally humiliating manner! Draco's silent slip into an attitude of outrage at this request was matched, expression for expression, by Snape's deepening glare of impatience.

"Now, Mr. Malfoy, or I assure you, matters will deteriorate quickly."

Draco's outrage was not quenched, but he realized the need to control it immediately or he was done for. Snape was clearly still furious with him, and if nothing else, much larger. With a gulp, and a silent pledge to himself to someday, somehow, seek revenge for this indignity, Draco slowly complied. It proved more difficult than he expected to actually drop his pants – that was more distressing than just about anything he'd encountered in his life. Despite himself, he looked hopefully at Snape, only to have that hope extinguished. "If you are not able to do this for yourself, Mr. Malfoy, I would be happy to assist." Struggling to control his breath and not show how upsetting he found this, Draco finally complied, and positioned himself as directed. His face was already a blotchy red from embarrassment and the effort to restrain his emotions, but he was determined not to give Snape any satisfaction that this had gotten to him in any meaningful way.

Snape made a show of picking out a ruler from the desk drawer, and standing where Draco could see, transfigured it into a paddle about two feet long and at least six inches wide, with a rounded handle at  
one end. Snape noticed with satisfaction that Draco's eyes grew even wider, and his face paled, as he watched that.

"You are going to receive 20 strikes with this paddle, Mr. Malfoy. I will assure that you experience the discomfort associated with this punishment for a further 24 hours with no abatement. We will then discuss the matter. If it appears that you have learned your lesson, the discomfort will be allowed to abate. If you have not learned your lesson, you will continue to experience the discomfort for a further 24 hours and we will repeat the process, until I am satisfied that you have learned from this."

Without further words or warning, Snape drew the paddle back and landed a good, strong smack across Draco's bottom. The boy could not control the shriek that escaped his throat, and he nearly jumped  
over the table. Snape shook his head – really, that was not the sort of smack that should have gotten that reaction. He cast a quick silencing charm, lest Draco attract an audience, and a sticking charm to keep him in place, and then resumed with a second swat. Draco was making a racket, but Snape was not going to relent. Snape was sure there would be a steady stream of threats and invective, but Draco was actually so upset he was not able to speak, and all he did was shriek and wail. Snape took care to be  
sure that the smacks were distributed evenly over all of Draco's bottom and his sit spot, hard enough to turn the tender skin a deep pink, but not so hard as to bruise or injure the boy. Snape finished with the last three smacks of the paddle landing in quick succession right on Draco's sit spot.

Draco went on shrieking and wailing for nearly a minute before he realized that the paddling had stopped. He was so distraught, he was almost out of breath. Snape transfigured the paddle back into a  
ruler and returned it to its place in the desk, waiting for Draco to calm down a bit. It occurred to him that this was probably the first time Draco had actually been as much as spanked, let alone paddled, and he fought back a smile at the very dramatic overreaction.

Finally, Draco was just sobbing softly, and Snape could speak. He tapped his wand on Draco's bottom and uttered the spell that would keep the discomfort level just as it was at this moment, for a further 24 hours. "Mr. Malfoy, if I discover that you have made any attempt to cancel this spell, you will be sorry indeed, and I will simply re-paddle your bottom and apply a much stronger spell, set to last twice as long. Also, if I detect any magical efforts to lessen the discomfort, like a softening charm on a seat or your clothes, the spell will be extended for a further 24 hours from that point."

"If you are ready, you may rise."

Draco carefully got his arms under his shoulders and pushed up, slowly straightening himself, as any movement impacting his bottom reignited the pain there. He looked shell-shocked. Taking the smallest measure of pity, Snape assisted Draco in locating his pants in the cloth wadded around his ankles and slowly working them up over his throbbing bottom, and then assisted in getting his trousers back in place. If it was not for the seriousness of the situation that had brought them to this point, Snape would have laughed at the look on Draco's face.

Snape stepped back and crossed his arms across his chest as he looked down at Draco. "Tomorrow is Saturday, so you do not have classes. I will expect to see you in the Great Hall sitting with your classmates at the long tables, for each of the three meals. Return here tomorrow evening after dinner. You may go now."

With an almost uncomprehending stare at Snape, Draco silently nodded and turned to leave, walking stiffly. Snape shook his head and continued to resist the urge to smile – that was simply not the kind  
of punishment that should have had him wailing as he did, and the pain was simply not that extreme given the lack of power in the smacks he'd delivered. This child had a lot to learn.

Draco appeared the next day for the fastest meals Snape had ever seen a student at Hogwarts consume. Draco ate his breakfast in less than three minutes, and lunch and dinner averaged only four and a half minutes. The boy's expression told Snape that he was still feeling the paddling. Obviously, he'd not shared any details of what had actually transpired, as his friends were keeping their distance from him. Snape suspected he'd spun a story of a stomach ailment or something to explain his demeanor, and his desire to spend just minutes at meals and presumably hours lying (on his stomach) in bed. Snape just hoped he had used all that solitude to reflect on his actions and reach some appropriate conclusions about his actions.

At last, Saturday dinner was over, and Snape found Draco waiting for him in the corridor as he arrived at his office. With a smirk, Snape unwarded and opened the door and stood aside to allow Draco to  
enter. They stood facing each other, and Snape quirked an eyebrow. A subdued Draco nodded, and said "My apologies, Professor. After I had the chance to think it over, I realize that my actions, while in my mind at the time appropriate and justified, certainly created an appearance of wrongdoing." Snape inhaled - if Draco was still disavowing that he had done something wrong, this was not going well. Draco continued "I understand that my intentions have no bearing on this. What I did was not excusable, and I appreciate your discretion in not telling others, and in dealing with the aftermath of my poor choices."

Snape, as much as he doubted the sincerity of the little speech, was impressed in spite of himself. With a nod, he waved his wand at Draco, and informed him "The spell has been lifted, and the discomfort you feel from the paddling should be gone soon." He put an arm around Draco's shoulder, and the two departed from the office to return to the Slytherin common room.


End file.
